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I don’t really have anything all that special planned for Earth Day. I’m a tree-hugging hippie every day. Zach picked up a pepper plant at his work today because they are giving them out for Earth Day. So we will be planting it tonight when he gets home! Yay peppers!

Right now I’m sitting outside writing and drinking water on the rocks. It’s a nice day. We put up a bird feeder a while ago, and it’s been so wonderful seeing all the birds. I really like birds. However, word got around in the bird community and so we have a TON of birds coming to one little feeder. Finches of all kinds, sparrows, chickadees, blue jays, doves, and even woodpeckers. We even have a mouse and a couple squirrels that eat what the birds throw on the ground. I feel like Snow White. Right now, there is a blue jay barking at me. It sounds kind of like a squeaky car. You know why it’s barking at me? BECAUSE THE FEEDER IS EMPTY. That’s right. We have to fill that thing every other day to keep stuff in it! It’s lunch time in bird land, and their favorite diner is out of stock. I wonder if Snow White had a similar problem.

I’m not really complaining. I like all the birds around. They are really cute. And they are safer at our house than they are next door with the murderous cats. My relationship with the birds will become more complicated after our berry plants become fruitful, but we already have some ideas in place.

I’m feeling a lot better though, but I don’t have a ton of energy. Also, my online classes started this week… so I suppose I need to get to some classwork.

Like this:

I had every intention of putting my short, weekend vacation at the cabin in the mountains to good use. I need to stop kidding myself. I spent time charging my laptop, thinking I would be inspired to write in my book. I charged my Kindle, also thinking I could catch up on some reading (I have 2 books going right now).

Nope. Just sat outside and looked at nature. Quite literally. I didn’t read anything. My phone, for the majority of the time, was off (I only turned it on to take pictures). I just sat outside, with my dogs and my husband, and we watched nature. For HOURS at a time. There was the occasional nap, food break, and hiking along the beautiful trails in between the hours of silence. Actually, my only complaint was my allergies, which, to be honest, were pretty bad.

I won’t lie, at first, I felt this tinge of anxiety not having access to my phone, or TV or whatever. Especially when Zach wasn’t around. Even though I knew he’d only be gone for a few minutes, I got that twinge of anxiety that I HAD to be doing something.

My GOD. I love technology, but our ability to not even be able to sit in silence for any period of time is ridiculous. I had to RESIST the temptation not to use [my phone]. Needless to say, I won, and after the first day, I was excited to just sit and look at things. My brain slowed down. I felt like I had quality time with everyone. We saw SO MANY ANIMALS. I don’t know if it was because we were paying attention, or the fact we sat so quietly that animals weren’t threatened by us. It might have been a combination of both.

I never realized how much I was in a fog because of the constant thinking and doing of everyday life. Being in the mountains, I felt present and everything around me felt more real, if that makes sense. We were so sad to come home. I’m not ready to do “real” life yet. Luckily, we will be gone next week for camping in Ouray and Telluride, to revisit our honeymoon spots.

So, I will apologize for the lack of blogs earlier this week, and the lack that will happen next week. I more than likely won’t even bring my computer for writing this time. I have too much nature to look at.

Like this:

I hate to discriminate against particular days of the week, but Mondays truly do suck (just for full disclosure, it took a lot for me to stop at “suck” instead of the longer, more inappropriate phrase I had in my mind). My only solace is that Zach has the rest of the week off, which means we’re going camping again (which also means no blog for the rest of the week).

Camping. I love the great outdoors, but there’s something about camping that makes me both love and hate it. We spend all this money to basically live like we’re homeless, which seems odd to me. Not only do I still have to cook and clean, but I have to cook and clean in the woods with no running water and worry about bears. Not to mention, the part I love most about camping, which is getting away from humans, is harder to do than one might think. Campgrounds are loud and full and you have neighbors. I don’t want neighbors. If I have to have neighbors, I’d rather be at home, where there are walls and fences blocking my view of their existence. We went camping a couple weekends ago, and we did dispersal camping, which means, no amenities, and you’re not on top of each other. In fact, we couldn’t see anyone else.

But we could hear them.

Until midnight, drunken arshole college kids played house music (HOUSE music!) and yelled and screamed like they were trying to call their pigs back to the farm. Farther from us on that same side, another drunk group played loud music and screamed, in what I imagine was a competition with the closer group. On the other side of us, we could hear a family celebrating a birthday, and then someone playing a guitar and singing for a couple of hours (which, by the way, I wasn’t annoyed at, the dude had a nice voice and played well, and not even their child was screaming – so they win). I tried to imagine I was just at a music festival that I went to on purpose, just to try and make myself a little less annoyed.

The stars were pretty though. I don’t get to look at stars often. I wonder if the drunk people noticed the stars.

So, if you’re going to be camping for this 4th of July here are my tips:

DO:
Partake in alcohol, if you like, by all means, let loose! I take my flask. And if you’re doing drugs, be careful and don’t wander off.
DON’T:
Get so wasted you’re screaming at the top of your lungs or doing the redneck “pig call.” It’s annoying.
DO:
Bring your instruments! Have an awesome jam session. I love hearing campfire music. What better stage than nature? Also, helps to keep your mind off the bears that are probably watching you.
DON’T:
Bring a DJ. Seriously. Why? If you want to throw a house party, find a house. Someone will have parents away, I’m sure. It’s also more fun in a house, because there are beds, and readily available paramedics.

This shouldn’t have to be said, but also, obey fire rules. We really don’t need anymore fires than we already get. I would like to have trees in the forest, please.